IMPACT: Togetherness in Fellowship

A. Acts 2:42 - 42) They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

B. The word for fellowship is Koinonia

1. The word koinos was originally a prefix meaning “common”

2. Koinonia originally was applied to things that were close in fellowship – guilds, marriages,

3. Koinonia grows to mean “doing” something in common, not just being something in common – we have a common goal

II. We are to hold one another accountable (1)

A. Illustration

1. In a team, the actions of one will effect the rest of the team

2. I protect Jake from the ironing board and the iron because it may hurt him – I do this out of love

3. I talk to Fletcher and Parker about situations they are facing in school that may lead them down bad paths

4. I still listen to my own father when he leads me because I know that he loves me and his wisdom will benefit me

5. This is accountability and each of us need it

B. Exegesis

1. We start with Depravity – All have sinned!

2. The idea is of a person falling into sin unaware, not willful and deliberate sin

3. What to do – restore the brother

a) Not just call him out or pray for him

b) Help him back to a place of spiritual obedience

4. By whom – You who are spiritual

a) Someone who is spiritually mature enough to honestly restore the brother

b) Someone with the maturity to handle the situation without being pulled into the sin

5. How to do it – Gently

6. Watch your self – you too may be tempted

C. Application

1. Let’s be willing to be held accountable, understanding out weakness – Paul – Romans 7:14-20

2. Let’s gently restore one another when we find brothers and sisters in sin

3. Restore in love with the realization that it could be any of us who fall into sin

4. Life raft – if someone fell out it would be stupid for someone to say

a) Let them get themselves back in – they caused themselves to fall out

b) Or, It would never happen to me

III. We are to serve one another (2)

A. Illustration

1. On a team you help each other grow stronger

2. On a team you help one another

B. Exegesis

1. Carry each other’s burdens

a) The word for burden is a tremendous load

b) We are to help one another through the rough times

2. By doing so we will fulfill the law of Christ

a) John 13:34 - 34) “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

b) Mark 12:29-31 - 29) “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30) Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31) The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

C. Application

1. Being what Christ wants us to be means getting our hands dirty in other people’s problems

2. We must help one another so that the troubled times do not tempt us nor lower our faith

IV. We are to be real to one another (humility) (3-4)

A. Illustration –

1. A team member must be realistic about what kind of player they are

a) They cannot constantly be putting themselves down because they are not the best

b) But they also cannot set their sights on the lowest player and bragging that they are better

c) Their comparison should always be on their own growth

2. I find the church to be a place which anyone can excel. This is good and bad, but it allows an outlet for people who are important nowhere else. They can be important here. They can be a leader and be seen as a godly person. They often take advantage of the situation and we begin to look down on others in our fellowship.

B. Exegesis

1. If we are to be a burden-bearer, we must lay aside self

2. We are too see ourselves realistically

a) Creatures of the God

b) Sinners save by grace

c) Children of God by virtue of Christ’s saving act

3. Test yourself –

a) Your standard of how you are doing should never be based on the growth of another person, but should always be on the basis of self-evaluation

b) So often we want to gauge our growth on whether we are better than someone else

c) Philippians 2:1-11 reminds us that we should be humble as Christ was humble

C. Application

1. The only gauge for you spiritual life should be based on your relationship with Christ

2. We need realistic evaluation of our selves, not evaluations based on other sinners

V. We are to cooperate with one another (5)

A. Illustration

B. Exegesis

1. This “load” is different from the first – The first is a large load, a burden, but this one is a normal load to carry – Was the idea of a ships load

2. This means that we are each to do our part

3. Other scriptures talk about being parts of the body – we all have different functions, but each work together to do the work of the body

4. If you are not carrying your load, you begin to be a burden on the rest of the body

5. Each person has an appointed load in the church

C. Application – Do whatever God is calling you to do to glorify Him

VI. Conclusion

A. Our fellowship in this church depends on us loving one another as a family

B. We are drawn together as a family through our common salvation

Romans 7:14-20 - 14) We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15) I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16) And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17) As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18) I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19) For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20) Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Philippians 2:1-11 - If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2) then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3) Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4) Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5) Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6) Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7) but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8) And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9) Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11) and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.